matk

Just to confirm 230 is LHD only. I actually went ahead and bought the part off Rockauto by mistake back in Sep and its the reverse of the RHD part.

And I’ve now confirmed they are MK3 seats, so I’ve decided to move them on and source genuine MK4. Now listed in for sale. Thanks for the advice and help.

Yes, I’ve previously had a buckled Alpina wheel done by these guys near Stoke. Superb old school engineers and the wheel was perfect afterwards, can’t recommend them highly enough.

D T Metallic Technology Wheel Specialists.

Car not coming to temp, not too bad a job and easy to understand why when I got the thermostat out.

6 hours ago, Britprius said:

Mat be careful is there a plug or connector on the wiring actually on the air bag?  The air bag usually have a connector that when disconnected shorts out the input of the air bag. This maybe in the connector you are going to change or on the air bag This is so that static electricity cannot set the air bag off in storage or while being handled. This connector should be disconnected to protect the air bag while you work on splicing the wiring. When done the air bag can be re connected. If the shorting switch is in the connector you are changing to be safe the wires going into the air bag should be connected together (shorted) while you solder on the replacement connector.
It would be safer to get the other part of the new seat connector off the car at the breakers, and fit that to your car allowing the new seat to be fitted without working on the air bag wiring.
I hope that makes sense.

John.

Hi John

That is info I wasn’t aware of but makes sense. Unfortunately I am not able to get the connector off the scrapped car as I bought the seats as stand alone items.

2 hours ago, cruisermark said:

I cant help but think that seat maybe from a Mark 3? - the Mark 3 seats are slightly firmer than the Mark 4 

That might explain it, the seats are definitely firmer than the ones in my car (which is a MK4). I thought that it was only the MK4 though that had seat airbags, did MK3 seats have these too?

All things considered I’m now swaying towards giving up with these seats and live with my original interior for a while until I can come up with a definite known MK4 interior.

Hit an unexpected prob........

Got the replacement seat into the car and then discovered the yellow airbag plug has a different shape to the one on the old seat, so it won’t plug back into the loom.

Any problems if I cut the plug off the old seat and splice it onto the new seat?

Thank you for the reply, when I looked closely the answer turned out to be very easy, as you suggested. There’s an access panel in the side plastic in exactly the right place to get to the seatbelt bolt. Prises out really easily and there is the bolt. Just need the rain to stop and I’ll get the seats swapped over.

Hi All, picked up a pair of spare front seats off a breaker to replace my rather worn ones. The ones from the breaker have just had the seatbelts cut near the mounting point on the seat, so the remaining stub is still attached to the seats.

Im a little bit nervous about tackling this as the seats have the side airbags. Is there a trick to it? How does the switch panel come off? Am I being over cautious? I know to disconnect the car Battery before I attempt unplugging the original seats but is there anything else I need to factor in?

Thanks in anticipation.

6 hours ago, steve2006 said:

Have look to see if there is any wiring loom and connector behind.

There’s nothing behind it, just a big gap, posted pics earlier in thread.

Coincidentally just met someone to pick up some replacement seats and he breaks the odd Lexus. He asked if it had been a medical vehicle as he felt it was an aftermarket mod that could have been done to fit a blue light. That rang a bell as the guy who bought it said he thought the first owner had been a Dr. I’m going to chill out about it now and give some thought to see if I can do anything with it. Now that the evidence points to it not being original I’ll stop thinking about whether there is an official cover I could have sourced.

There’s nothing in the gap, no tow eye or fixing for one, just an empty space. The bumper doesn’t look hacked or missed, no it’s not got LPG. I’ve only had the car a week so it’s a complete mystery to me

Hi all, I’m a happy new owner of a 1998 MK4 LS400. I have what looks like a gap in the bottom of the front bumper. I’ve been looking at various pics but can’t work out if it is meant to be like this or is missing some part of trim. Can anyone help advise me?

Hi just fresh to the Lexus world having just bought an LS400 but I have lived in France for 9 years previously so I know quite a lot about this. Firstly just like the UK there are official rules that some of the CT guys adhere to religiously but there are other CT guys who are not as strict. Just because one CT guy will pass with beam deflectors doesn’t make it allowable or in accordance with the actual rules. Officially your headlights must concur with the official French Part numbers which might be stamped on the lenses or might not be. That is the law. There will be some more lenient CT guys out there but that doesn’t make what they do legal. It doesn’t matter if the beam pattern complied, the part must have the French part number. Another example of their beaurocracy........ if your tyres are not exactly as specified by manufacturer it’s a CT fail. If you don’t have the exact same tyres across each axle ie left and right, it’s a CT fail.